[Techtalk] easy SMTP authentication with any MTA

[Morgan Landry]

I'd really like to use mutt as my MUA instead of Mozilla,
 but to use it I want to be able to both send and receive mail.
To receive mail, I just type:

fetchmail -m procmail

and email is automatically sent from my my school's mail
server to my hard drive.  It's that easy.  Sending mail
has been much more difficult.  The only way seems to
be a MTA like sendmail (which is difficult and way too
complex for my needs).  If there's an easy
way to do the following, I'd love it:

1. Type in message in mutt (or the MUA of your choice) and send it.
2. Mutt goes to a MTA and gives it the message.
3. The MTA connects with my school's server.
4. My school's server uses LOGIN. It asks for my password.
5. The MTA gives it my password.
6. The school's server sends the message along on its merry way.

I've tried doing something with sendmail, but it's been _way_ too
time consuming and confusing. There must be a simpler way,
but I haven't found it yet.  Any advice?

Morgan